Strategic School Profile: Glastonbury High School

Today's profile is Glastonbury High School, one of the state's largest high schools.

Today's profile is Glastonbury High School, one of the state's largest high schools. (Peter Marteka)

The strategic school profile for Glastonbury High School during the 2012/13 school year.

Each year, the state Department of Education releases data on public schools in the state. Each Thursday, we will look at the 2012/13 numbers for each of Glastonbury's nine schools from students eligible for free lunches to the number of students per computer.

Glastonbury High School, the largest 9-12 school in the state, is located on Hubbard Street. There were 2,239 students enrolled on Oct. 1, 2012 and the five-year enrollment change was up 8.5 percent. The school is made up mostly of white students with 1,791 or 80 percent of students. This is followed by 187 Asian Americans; 142 Hispanic; 72 African Americans; 4 American Indian and 43 students of two or more races. Approximately 7 percent of students came from homes where English is not the primary language.

The average Algebra 1 class size is 16.7 students with the similar-sized schools at 18.1 average and in the 17.6 state. Biology 1 averages 19.7 and 19.1 in similar schools 19.8 and 18.6 in the state. For 10th-grade English class size is 19.2 students with similar schools at 20.5 and state average at 19. Students went 180 days with 997 hours of instruction. State law requires at least 180 days of school and 900 hours of instruction. The state average is 181 days and 1,027 hours.

On the technology side, there are 3.3 computers for each student with similar schools at 2.3 and state average at 2.1. All juniors, sophomores and freshmen are provided iPads through the school. All the computers at the school have internet access with 100 percent at high or moderate power.

Teachers at the school have 13.4 years of experience in education versus similar schools average of 14.3 and state average of 13.9. The school has 92.4 percent of teachers with a Master's degree or above with the district average at 86.6 and state at 76.8. The teachers who remained at the school from the previous year was 86.6 percent.

When it comes to passing physical fitness tests – flexibility, abdominal strength and endurance, upper-body strength and aerobic endurance – 62.7 percent of high school students passed. The state average was 51.4 percent. The number of juniors and seniors working more than 16 hours a week was 85 or 8 percent of the students. Similar schools is 10.3 percent with the state at 12.7.

There were 183 students – or 8.2 percent of the school – eligible for free or reduced-price meals. There were also 223 students with some sort of special need with 78 percent of those children spending more than 79 percent of their time with non-special need classmates. There were 212 students identified as gifted and talented.

There were 129 incidents that required discipline including 181 school policy violations, 21 drug/alcoholtobacco violations and 11 fighting/battery. The graduation rate is 96.3 percent with the state at 84.4 percent. The dropout rate is .02 percent with the state average at 2.1 percent.

The following narrative was submitted by the school under "School improvement plans and activities":

GHS's improvement plans are linked to the district's Strategic Plan, which focuses on the three goals of promoting high achievement through curriculum development, technology and assessment; developing communication; and strengthening staff development.

To meet the first of these goals, the school promotes high achievement through its 23 Performance Standards for graduation. Additionally, during 2012-13 all departments continued working to revise written curriculum to include 21st Century skills using curriculum mapping software. Technology improvements continued to expand, with all teachers being issued iPads in October 2012.

Teachers utilized increased professional development time to work on improving 21st Century teaching and learning with technology, as well as expanding communication through the use of teacher websites.

The second goal is addressed through a significant upgrade to our parent notification system, School Messenger, which communicates routine information, bi-monthly principal newsletters, and emergency messages in a timely manner. Our school website, http://www.glastonburyus.org, provides parents, students and the community with information about current high school events, access to individual teacher web pages, and other facts.

A Technology Renewal Committee continued to meet and develop recommendations for updating all GHS technology. One class piloted the use of iPads to enhance instruction and assessment. Plans include issuing iPads to all students beginning with freshmen and sophomores in the summer of 2013. The third goal to strengthen staff development was addressed by providing continued instruction on the enhancement of teacher websites and using the iPad as an instructional tool.

Interdisciplinary groups of eight to ten teachers each were created and monthly professional development time provided to discuss issues pertinent to improving teaching and learning. In addition to district professional development programs, teachers have opportunities to attend state, regional and national workshops. A school data team examines student academic records on a quarterly basis to assess the need for SRBI interventions.

The Student Intervention Team meets monthly to oversee implementation of SRBI and determine further steps necessary to ensure student success. Positive behavioral interventions have been developed in an ongoing effort to provide a safe and supportive educational environment for all students. The Safe School Climate Committee supports initiatives to promote positive student behaviors such as personal responsibility, respect for others, determination and hard work.